New England
Fly fishing in New Hampshire
Short answer
New Hampshire fly fishing is White Mountain stream and northern river fishing, with native brook trout, wild and stocked rainbows and browns, and landlocked Atlantic salmon in the big lakes and the Connecticut headwaters. The Androscoggin, the upper Connecticut and the Swift are the headline waters. A licence is required from age 16.
What makes New Hampshire different
New Hampshire is a brook trout state that happens to contain two serious salmon rivers. The White Mountains are full of small, steep, cold streams holding native brook trout, and nobody fishes most of them — you pull off a forest road, walk up a brook, and catch bright six-inch fish all afternoon. Then in the north the Androscoggin runs out of Umbagog carrying landlocked Atlantic salmon as well as trout, and the three Connecticut Lakes above Pittsburg feed a chain of river sections that fish like the Rangeley country over the Maine line. The state is also unusually honest about its stocking: a great deal of the accessible water is put-and-take and says so, which makes it straightforward to pick between an easy afternoon and a hard walk to wild fish.
What trout and other fish are in New Hampshire?
- Brook trout
- Native, and the default fish in the mountain streams. Small, numerous and willing.
- Landlocked Atlantic salmon
- The Androscoggin, the Connecticut headwaters and the big lakes. Spring and autumn.
- Rainbow trout
- Stocked widely, with wild fish in a few rivers.
- Brown trout
- Larger rivers and some lakes, and the biggest trout in the state.
- Lake trout
- Deep lakes, and reachable on a fly just after ice-out.
Where to fly fish in New Hampshire
- Androscoggin River
- Out of Umbagog through Errol. Landlocked salmon, rainbows and a famous stretch of pocket water.
- Upper Connecticut River
- Below the Connecticut Lakes at Pittsburg. Trophy sections, salmon, and the far north.
- Swift River
- Through the Kancamagus. Small, clear, catch and release in places, and very pretty.
- Pemigewasset River
- Central and accessible, with stocked and holdover fish and good caddis.
- Saco River
- North Conway. Stocked, popular and easy to fish with a family.
- White Mountain brooks
- Hundreds of unnamed native brook trout streams. No guidebook, no company.
When to fly fish in New Hampshire
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| April – May | Ice-out on the big lakes and salmon on streamers. Rivers high and cold, dropping through May. |
| June | The best month. Hatches on the rivers, brook trout rising in the mountains, blackflies everywhere. |
| July – August | Low water. Fish high and early for brook trout, or the tailwater-fed stretches. |
| September | Salmon running, trout colouring up, and the season closing on many streams at mid-month. |
| October – March | Limited open water, then ice. A few sections stay open for catch and release. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in New Hampshire?
Yes. Licenses are issued by New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $45 |
| Non-resident, annual | $63 |
Figures are Fish and Game's published rates for an annual freshwater fishing licence. A transaction fee of $2.00 is added, or $2.75 when bought online, and a separate fisheries habitat fee is set by department rule. Prices change — check with the agency before you buy.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- A fishing licence is required from age 16. A transaction fee is added to every licence.
- Seasons differ by water and by region, and many streams close in mid-October while some sections stay open for catch and release.
- Fly-fishing-only and catch-and-release stretches are designated individually, including parts of the upper Connecticut and the Swift.
- Landlocked salmon carry their own seasons and limits, separate from the trout rules.
- Rules are set in the annual freshwater fishing digest, by water.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in New Hampshire
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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The deck
54 flies, drawn by hand, in your jacket pocket.
A 54-card fly-fishing deck of original hand-drawn flies, each explaining what it imitates. Made by a father-and-daughter team in Eagle, Idaho.
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